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Its pretty cool, fun to use.

In case people do not know how to get Google Earth with chart overlay, I'm putting down info so can get going immediately.

Download Google Earth:

http://earth.google.com/

After installing Google Earth...

Download the free nautical charts from Navimatics (thanks for the program!).

http://navimatics.com/maps.aspx

Then when program starts up, right click on Navimatics to add it to your folder.

Now you have a chart on Google Earth. Go up close then the charts will show up. There are a transparency bar to your left. It doesn't really work that well but you can pop from chart to satellite images as you virtually explore.

For extra fun, turn on the Terrains feature (little box at the bottom, lower left corner) so you can see hills, geographic features. You will see a eyeball at the top right corner, click on the top or lower arrow to look at places at an angle (you look directly down by default, you won't see hills, etc) so you can see the geographic features better.

The charts are not as detailed as I would have liked but hey, its free.

Have fun. I do have to warn that Google Earth is a major resources hog - if your computer is sluggish running Google Earth, its time to budget for a new computer...

- Case

A similar thing is avaible here: http://demo.geogarage.com/noaa/ - you don't need to download anything. Either way you go about it, it's very cool.

Very cool, thanks. :)

Hey that looks neat!

I've been playing with Google Earth, and adding pictures via Panoramio. I'm not sure if it's working though. Do you by any chance see my picture of a pilot whale in the Cape Cod Canal when you zoom in near the Sagamore bridge (east end)? Or does Panoramio only add the image to my view?

John

Also if anyone is using Garmin's Mapsource program that comes with their GPS maps it has an option to view your tracks on Google Earth.